Get Think - Science/Nerd/Philosophy

Can you show me how to get to infinity? AKA Hubble Deep Field in 3D

willisonly — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:51:40 +0000

The Hubble Deep Field images have amazed since I first saw them a few years ago. Essentially, they represent the minuscule understanding humanity has of the known visible universe while at the same time standing as a testament to how far we have come already. Using our knowledge and curiosity we have managed a glimpse of galaxies over 13 billion light years from our tiny blue speck. Just try to let that number sink in. The light that created these images took 13 billion years to get to us. When we look at this image, we are literally looking into a time where humanity, all life on earth, and very probably the earth itself had not yet existed.

Now a new treat has been created. NASA scientists have used the shifting red spectrum commonly used to classify stars and bodies in space by distance and speed to create a 3D image of the Deep Field as the viewer moves through it. The video link explains the history of Deep Field along with providing a magnificent show.

Hubble Deep Field in 3D (via milkandcookies.com)

Skeptics Among Us: Atheists Visit The Creation Museum

willisonly — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:43:02 +0000

Well, I haven’t posted in a while. I know.

However, it’s been for good reason because I’ve been doing things like visiting the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky alongside 280 other atheists and agnostics . The Secular Student Alliance invited P.Z. Meyers, Associate Professor of Biology at University of Minnesota and godless liberal at the blog Pharyngula, to tour through the museum.

I could go on for hours about this visit, but luckily new found friend Paige Malott got the whole thing on tape. Here you can see me and our little group along with the rest of our heathen brethren make our way through the wacky world of creationism. I’m still collecting my thoughts but you’ll hear from me again soon.

Skeptics Among Us: Atheists Visit The Creation Museum

Pharyngula – P.Z. Meyers’ Blog

Ponder this a moment…

willisonly — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:56:05 +0000

This is a mobile x-ray machine adorned with pokemans. Embrace Japan.
Kotaku – Pokemon X-Ray Machine

Quote of the Day… John Locke edition

willisonly — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:51:38 +0000

“…that in a book, which was to provide Chains for all Mankind, I should find nothing but a Rope of Sand, useful perhaps to such, whose Skill and Business it is to raise a Dust, and would blind the People, the better to mislead them, but in truth is not of any force to draw them into Bondage, who have their Eyes open, and so much Sense about them as to consider, that Chains are but an ill wearing, how much Care soever hath been taken to file and polish them.”

- John Locke
Two Treatises of Government

Where do you keep your uranium? AKA Scott Teplin, artist

willisonly — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:32:05 +0000

Scott Teplin is one of my favorite artists. He has managed to create a style all his own that combines a whimsical child with markers quality with a great sense of balance and classic design philosophy. As a former graphic designer I have always hated how what I consider to be a good graphic work has to be somehow in competition in artistic expression. Teplin (in this specific series, his other works as much more expressive) shows that these elements can be brought into balance. In some ways, his work here seems to be a comment on design in many of its forms (ergonomics, architecture, interior).

TEPLIN.COM Scott Teplin, New York City artist

Japan features some crazy small apartments.

U.S. Grant watches you masturbate AKA the HHF De-Master

willisonly — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:53:01 +0000

My BFF Nick Stevens recently posted a “De-Mastered”version of our old band Holy Heart Failure’s album.It is a masterpiece of PBR and cough medicine vision quests. Plus you should spend most of your free time on his blog

A Lot of Little Things to Kick

Nature as a canvas AKA Amazing geological formations

willisonly — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:38:22 +0000

NASA (my favorite word to rhyme with ASS-A) has been taking purty photographs from space for a long time. But now they have compiled the interesting geological formulations in a handy little website for you to wonder upon. It continues to amaze me how the scope of our perceptions can be expanded through our ambitions and technology. We were amazed when we stood on vistas reaching over the horizon, now we can be amazed again as we reach over the horizon.
Our Earth as Art NASA & USGS

Quote of the day. Carl Sagan Edition.

willisonly — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:23:42 +0000

” The Earth is a place. It is by no means the only place. It is not even a typical place. No planet or star or galaxy can be typical, because the cosmos is mostly empty. The only typical place is within the vast, cold, universal vacuum, the everlasting night of intergalatic space, a place so strange and desolate that, by comparision, planets and stars and galaxies seem achingly rare and lovely. If we were randomly inserted into the cosmos, the chance that we would find ourselves on or near a planet would be less than one in a billion trillion trillion (10^33, a one followed by 33 zeros). In everyday life such odds are called compelling. Worlds are precious.”

- Carl Sagan, “Cosmos”

Want to argue some great points for atheism? Carl Sagan will always guide your hand.

Ponder this a moment… Taco Tuesday

willisonly — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:19:51 +0000

Enjoy every taco. Life is too short.

This old planet. AKA Terraforming a new home.

willisonly — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 05:43:13 +0000

credit: NASA via redorbit.com

As we look towards the future it is clear that not only our ambitions but our sheer swarming mass will one day be too much for one planet alone to sustain. While many views on human sociology point towards a leveling of birth rates one cannot deny the exponential effect that is unlikely to be stopped by planned parenthood anytime soon. So, teaming and writhing, we ought to blast off into the last frontier in search of new homesteads to build our white picket fences upon.

But where do we go?

Without a significant and miraculous breakthough in our transportation technology it’s not too likely we can blast off to another solar system let alone another star cluster in search of another perfect little planet like Earth. So we might need to look towards our inhospitable neighbors and see if they wouldn’t mind cleaning up a bit to recieve company.

Terraforming is any process by which a planet that is unable to sustain life is made to sustain life. This can take on many forms. Carl Sagan, in a process he called “planetary-engineering” (Science, 1961 via Wiki), suggested we convert Venus’ atmosphere using algae. Commonly though, the notion is thought to be about introducing some sort of oxygen producer like a forest. would be after introducing liquid or ice water to the planet along with a stable mix of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and breathable nitrogen (N2) which are necessary to support plant life.

Are there ethical concerns?

Who is working on this?